Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Review – 6 Months Later

By Josh Teder

It’s been 6 months since I bought a pair of the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro. While they were initially lauded for their audio quality and noise cancellation, how have they held up over the past 6 months? And have I run into any issues with them like I did with the AirPods Pro 3? I’ll talk about all of that and more.

Design

The first thing that’s really stood out with these is their design. While slightly taller, the case is more pocketable than the previous version, and not as large as something like Nothing’s Buds, for example, which feel kind of big.

I really like the aesthetic they went for with the aluminum blade design, which gives them an elegance that the previous version just didn’t have with the more gimmicky Cybertruck blade-like design. And while the bud shape and size is pretty identical to AirPods, the metal helps give them their own sense of identity.

Plus, now they come in three colors, not just white. The pinch controls have worked a bit better than on the Buds Pro 3, and I’ve had no issues with them over the past 6 months. The volume adjustments along their front side have worked equally well.

Sound Quality

But who cares about the design if the sound sucks? Thankfully, the sound quality these have been lauded for has stayed true for me over the past 6 months. They sound well balanced, produce a clear sound with a nice tight bass, and overall have a really nice punchy sound to them.

The punchy sound generated by the dual amp two-way speakers is what keeps setting these apart.

Compared to the other buds I’ve been testing, that punchy sound is what keeps setting these apart. Unlike buds like the AirPods Pro 3, these emphasize the mids a bit more in my experience than the highs, which I think some will definitely prefer.

Of course, Samsung gives you a nine-band EQ, so you can fine-tune things to your liking.

Ultra High-Quality Audio

Another thing with sound quality on these buds is that they support ultra high-quality audio using Samsung’s Seamless Codec, though only if you use a phone like the S26 Ultra that I’ve been reviewing. That feature will give you up to a 24-bit 96 kHz sample rate.

Noise Cancellation

But what about noise cancellation? 6 months later, I’d say it’s good, but not the best compared to other buds I’ve been testing in this price range.

Everyday Noise

For blocking out everyday noise, like when I’m making coffee with my espresso machine or cooking, these just let in more noise than my AirPods Pro 3 or my Sony WF-1000XM6s. Both of those buds have foam infused into their tips, or just foam tips altogether in the case of the Sonys, to help them get better passive noise cancellation. That does make me wonder if the Buds 4 Pro would have also benefited from foam-infused tips.

Travel

I also took these traveling with me. Again, compared to other buds like the AirPods, in a crowded airport lounge these just let in more noise of people talking around me than the other buds did. On the airplane itself, though, for things like cabin noise, I thought their cancellation was equally as good as my other buds at cutting out that frequency.

Noise Cancellation Hiss

One other thing I do want to mention: when you put them on and engage noise cancellation with no media playing, you might hear a bit of a hissing noise in the background, depending on what frequencies you’re more sensitive to. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is something I’ve noticed with these buds that I don’t notice as much with the other ones I test.

Microphones

Something Samsung has talked a lot about with these buds are the mics and the improvements they made to them. I recorded on the buds via my S26 Ultra in Pro Video mode, which interestingly enough also gives you a lot of interesting things you can play around with in what the mics pick up. Overall, I actually think the mics sound pretty good and pretty clear.

360 Audio, Head Tracking and Other Features

When it comes to things like head gestures, translations, and 360 Audio, those are all features these buds have, but ones I just haven’t found myself using.

For 360 Audio specifically, when I first enabled this, I honestly didn’t think it sounded that bad. Depending on the mix of what you’re listening to, it’s one of the better versions of that kind of feature I’ve experienced. It’s not actually playing the Dolby Atmos file from the music service like you get with AirPods and Apple Music, though. All it’s really doing here is expanding the sound stage. I haven’t left this feature on because I found it can lead to distortion that does not sound good with certain songs, like Fortnight by Taylor Swift, for example.

Head tracking, while it does work well, just feels gimmicky to me. Outside of using it for watching content, where it’ll feel like you’re in a virtual theater, I don’t really get the use for it.

The Downsides

Gemini and Voice Commands

One of the only issues I’ve actually had with these buds over the past 6 months is with the assistant you can put on them. When you first set them up, you’ll notice that you can actually put Gemini on them, which is awesome. And yes, even saying “hey G” will trigger the assistant hands-free.

The problem I ran into, though, is that at some point during my review period this feature just stopped working. That really confused me for a second, because when I went into settings, the Google stuff was set up correctly. But then there’s a section called voice wake-up, which makes you think that you can only wake Bixby, and then for some reason Perplexity, but not Google. It turns out that’s not actually correct. Gemini can be woken from your voice as well. Unpairing my buds from my S26 Ultra and then repairing them did fix the issue, but soon after I did that it stopped working again, which has been kind of weird and frustrating.

They also have voice commands for music controls. That actually worked really well. The problem is that the feature is kind of rigid. You have to say specific phrases in order for it to work. You can’t just say “pause” or “pause music.” You must say “stop music” for it to work, or “play music” for it to resume.

Another downside I’ve encountered that relates to Gemini is that when I asked the assistant on the buds what song was currently playing on Spotify, it just couldn’t identify it, which is something Gemini should be able to do. After trying this out with my other buds and Android phones, like my Pixel Buds Pro 2 and my Pixel 11 Pro XL, it did not work there either. So this actually just seems to be a limitation with Gemini itself.

The Case Stopped Charging

I did run into another issue with these buds. The week I filmed this, they just stopped charging. When plugging them in or putting them on the wireless charger, the case would, after a while, blink red, which apparently means that the contacts are dirty or there’s moisture in the case.

So I took them out of the case to clean the contacts, to no avail. When I did it a second time, I guess I just didn’t clean them fully the first time, and then they finally worked and charged like normal. Just something to be aware of. This is not something I typically run into when testing earbuds, but it did happen on these buds.

Battery Life

Now, by far the biggest downside with these buds is battery life. I just wish it was better. It’s 6 hours with ANC on, and it’ll be even less than that if you use the high-res audio option. That just doesn’t cut it compared to the competition. The Pixel Buds Pro 2, Sony WF-1000XM6 and AirPods Pro 3, all of which I’ve reviewed, all have 8 hours with ANC on, not 6. And yes, I’ve had work days where I’ve worn these for hours and they were not able to last me throughout the entire workday.

It’s 6 hours with ANC on, and it’ll be even less than that if you use the high-res audio option.

Water Resistance

The other main downside is water resistance. While the buds themselves come with an excellent IP57 rating, meaning they can survive temporary immersion in water up to 1 m deep for 30 minutes, the case comes with no water resistance rating. And not to bring up the fruit company again, but the AirPods Pro 3 not only have an IP57 rating for their buds, but also for their case.

Should You Buy the Galaxy Buds 4 Pro?

So, do I recommend the Buds 4 Pro? Yeah. Even with the downsides, I think, especially if you’re an owner of a Samsung device, these would be a great accessory, and I’ve genuinely enjoyed using them.

If you’re not in the Galaxy ecosystem, though, there are others I probably would look at before getting these, mainly due to that shorter battery life, like the Pixel Buds Pro 2 or the Sony WF-1000XM6s, especially given the price of those is similar to these buds. You can see the prices for all of the buds I’ve talked about in the Featured Products section above.

For deals on Samsung tech or earbuds, search “Samsung deals” or “earbud deals” on our shop page. Plus, I’ll be doing a top buds of 2026 post where I put these against a bunch of other different buds, so stay tuned for that.

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